Fashions in speech interest me almost as much as they annoy me. So has been in the spotlight before - I remember hearing it shanghaied for the first time in Friends, although I'm not sure if they originated it, in phrases like ' I am so not going out with Joey/Chandler/Ross.' The current use of so catches in my ear in same way as another fashion did a few years back when people (more specifically young female Australian soap stars, though it spread like a bush fire) started to lift their voices towards the end of a sentence, in a way that implied there was a question where there wasn't one.
I've wondered since if it was written into a script - a random question mark typed at the end of a phrase, intended to convey a character's youth and uncertainty, that started a whole trend.
It's intriguing how language develops and how trends and words spread. Do linguists have maps to track the viral nature of a phrase or slang? I'm thinking of things like ' minded' and 'mispoke' as well as So and those speech patterns from Oz....Anyway, so, Happy Monday? xxx
So I totally agree Sue. The implied question irritates me most and is still on the rise. The thing that I find very irritating is the use of of instead of have as in "could of". What on earth does that mean? It must have come from the television and I suspect maybe Eastenders.
ReplyDeleteSo, I've been thinking about what you've said. And I have no idea.
ReplyDelete